so full of institutions for bodily and mental ailments, supported almost entirely by the frequenters of churches and chapels? Their hearts are open, and their purses are open; God bless them, and that right early. Let us look at the Christian, and ask the nature of his belief, wrapped in his perception of immortality, and you will find him undecided. If I were to give a rough sketch: it would be as follows. "God is my Creator and Preserver, and at death I sleep till the morning of the resurrection, when the trumpet of the archangel will wake man up to receive his sentence of joy or of sorrow-that heaven and hell are so far off, the inhabitants now have no communion with us; they had during the time of the prophets and apostles, but the book of inspiration being closed, those powers are no longer needed; as man has now the Word of God,' he is now to live by faith, and not by sight.' Therefore, though there is a spiritual world, it does not act on man, and cannot till the Resurrection." Thus the thousand millions of human beings who came into and passed out of existence on an average every thirty years, for several thousand years past, are all dead, and will remain dead till the final day, having no knowledge of good or evil, of pleasure or of pain during these ages. Strange to say-I have heard over and over from the pulpit (and from the very persons who have enunciated the principle which leads to the previous conclusion), while the theme has been on "happiness," state, "that to be absent from the body is to be present with God;" that is, that physical death is merely a transition state-caterpillar and butterfly the emblems. And when an explanation is asked of the apparent discrepancies in the two statements, the reply is either, "It is a mystery," or, that there is an intermediate state; and in the haze, and maze, the subject is changed with "what we know not now, we shall know hereafter." One thing is rooted in the mind of the masses of Christian ministers and, of course, by instruction conveyed to the people;—that Man, after death, is not permitted to revisit earth; that of course spirits and angels are in life, but in the far-off distance, and never physically interfere with the engagements of man on earth-that interference is only produced by God through Christ. Thus the bright, glorious, intellectual beings, created by the Creator-archangel and cherubim-have no duties to perform in connection with earth; Michael, Gabriel, and the angels of the Lord have left the earth, because the sacred books were made up; and though those books century after century were only copied, one here and another there, in monastic institutions, so that not one in twenty millions of the population could read it and obtain the true faith-light, yet the Deity withdrew the ministry of spirits or angels when the last apostle died. "Ichabod" was, and still is, written on the foreheads of hundreds and thousands of millions of human beings; and all the signs in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, in apparitions seen, in voices heard, and domestic predictions given, are deemed by the materialist, "Hallucinations" and "Hysteria," and by the Christian “Satanic influence.” Right and proper it is for the materialist to doubt, so long as the phenomena is beyond the ordinary laws of matter, and he thinks the evidence unsatisfactory; but for Christians to throw the purple of divinity on the shoulders of the devil, is to me a marvel. Gunpowder was of the devil, gravitation was of the devil, vaccination was of the devil, gas was of the devil, mesmerism and clairvoyance were of the devil, and now spiritualism is of the devil. Verily, of such folks it may be said, "God is not in all their thoughts." They forget that "the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." The phenomena of spiritualism, if it can be proved, throws sunlight on the landscapes of spirit-scenery in the Bible; and as there may be and I know there are-thousands of good Christians who have it on their minds, that spirit-power is true, but that it is forbidden in Scripture, I think it well to satisfy their minds that they are under a "delusion;" and those readers who have not that impression will bear with me for giving my reasons, so that the Christian, being satisfied that it is lawful to examine this subject, may join hands with us in the examinations we may have to make. SECTION V. LAWFULNESS OF SPIRIT COMMUNION. THERE appears to be a deep-seated fear in the minds of many Christians, that the proceedings of Spiritualists are contrary to the Divine will-that converse with Spirits is forbidden, and that as God will not co-operate with those who act contrary to his laws; it is plain, that the signs and wonders now taking place, are by the "Devil;" or, more elegantly, by "Satanic Agency." There are two great classes in the world-Those who believe in the existence and superintending care of a Superior Being, called "GoD:" and those who turn up the lip in scorn, at those of their countrymen who believe either in the actual being of a God, or of Angels, or of Man's Immortality. The latter class is the largest, and most powerful in Europe; though thousands upon thousands of ministers and priests are engaged to turn the scale. I am therefore penning this section on the Lawfulness of Spirit-Communion for the FIRST CLASS; so as to convince their judgments, remove their fears, and band them with us in assailing the MATERIALISM of the present day. What I intend to pen will be more of a text character, to be amplified by others, if they feel so disposed. I find that a good sized volume, full of life and interest, could be written on the magnificent mechanism which the ALL-WISE, ALL-MIGHTY, has called into existence, to unfold his plans, and to govern MAN: 2nd. If there be Spirits, are they so employed as not to be able to engage in human affairs? 3rd. If Spirits are able, is it contrary to Scripture for man to hold communion with them? The Third has now to be grappled with. Exodus xxii. 18, is the Goliah brought forward to slay Spirit-communion with man. The commandment is, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live:" and opponents chuckle over this commandment, saying; “Witchcraft is forbidden—and what is Spiritualism but witchcraft?" On this foundation of sand they build their superstructure of opposition. Pray, are all the Mosaic ordinances still binding? (Read them carefully over, and note down those Christians ignore.) If they are, what is to become of us Christians? What a state of condemnation we are in-every Christian family, priest, and people are breaking those laws every week; and the powers that be, ought to be stoning people to death by wholesale; and woe unto us as a nation, if in one jot or tittle, we avoid carrying out the olden commandments. The thing is absurd; the whole question resolves itself into two parts-GOOD-EVIL. God was instructing his chosen people by Seers, or Prophets, how to act when they became masters of countries where the people worshipped the evil intelligencies, or Gods; who acted on the Seers called Witches. It was therefore forbidden to the Jewish people to confer with the witches of the countries they were to possess; because their powers were inferior to those of the Seers of the true God. The Jews came out of Egypt, that country of the Magicians, Witches, etc. Those persons had supernatural power, as was shewn in the trial of strength between them and the Seers of God, Moses and Aaron; and to prove I am right in calling them SEERS, I quote 1st Sam. ix. 9, "Beforetime in Israel when a man went to enquire of God, thus he spake :— Come, let us go to the Seer, for he that is now called a Prophet was before-time called a Seer"-in our day a Medium: I therefore plainly state my belief to be, that it was clearly forbidden to the Jews to inquire as to the future from Seers of the Prince of the power of the air; but it was their privilege to seek the Seers of the true God for their guidance in passing through life; and now for the proof;-first, take the continuation of the commandments of Exod. xxii. as in the next chap. verse 20, Behold I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way (Spirit guidance) to bring thee unto the place which I have prepared (Spirit foreknowledge); beware of him, and obey - his voice." (Spirit speech.) Sam. xi. 6. Saul had lost his asses he could not find them-he was advised by his servant, as many of our servants now-a-days advise their masters and mistresses-he said, "Behold, now, there is in this city a man of God; all that he saith cometh surely to pass: now let us go thither; here is the fourth part of a shekel of silver (three pence farthing) that will I give to the man of God to tell us the way (to the asses);" his "Satanic agency" powers, as they would now be called, were well known to the "Maidens" of the district; for Saul was directed by them which way to go, to find the Seer; he went, but in the meantime, the Lord showed his sanction of the whole, by telling the Medium, Samuel, "IN HIS EAR;" "To-morrow, I will send thee a man thou shalt anoint to be Captain over my people." Saul little thought that the train of incidents, asses, servants, maidens, were acts of special providence, or guidance. But we pass on; by and by Samuel dies-Saul is king-he neglects God's commands, and is rejected-he enquires of God's Seers, but could get no response; not because it was forbidden, but because "when he enquired of the Lord, the Lord answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by Seers," or those we now call Mediums-three modes of communion. Saul, therefore, restless and anxious, finding the communion through holy men shut up, went to a witch, one who had a familiar spirit of evil; one of the forbidden or magical class and Samuel answered the call, and conversed with Saul: 1 Sam. xxviii. 7-19. The order for putting. witches to death was 1491 B.C. Saul going to Samuel the Seer or Medium, and paying three pence farthing to know where his asses were, was 1095-or 396 years after the former date. The word "ANGEL" signifies messenger, or "Bringer of tidings." When the Queen of England sends a message we sink the messenger, and say-The Queen commands. So with Scripture, we have "The word of the Lord came;" " "the angel from, or of, the Lord;" or "the Lord appeared." Who were |
